Last week, in honor of the arrival of St. Patrick’s Day, we talked about setting a story in Ireland. On the heels of the holiday that drives people into drinking establishments better than any other, it seems only natural to segway into a discussion of a locale that also pops up with regularity in storytelling: the bar. Read the rest of this entry →

In 1996, having just completed my freshman year at Brown University, I packed up a backpack and joined three friends on a three-week trip backpacking in Ireland. This was a huge step for me: it was the first trip I planned on my own and took on my own, without any parental involvement or supervision. It was my first trip overseas. Besides all that, it was to Ireland, a place I had been dreaming about visiting for many years.

I’m a creature of habit. I like to go back to vacation spots I’ve visited before (I am not allowed another trip to Paris before I go to a new European city). I like to return to attractions and sites and parks I know, especially if I bring people along who have never been (I’ve been to Disney World in Orlando eleven times). And I tend to rewatch favorite television shows and movies and reread favorite books rather than watch/read new. (an old roommate once told me, in a completely non-snarky fashion, that it’s because the characters become my friends, and I think she’s right).

But I do like new experiences, really. I just have to push myself to have them and not to fall back on the comfortable and familiar. Join me as I try to consume the new as well as the old, and each month, I’ll give you my thoughts on some of the best I’ve discovered. Read the rest of this entry →